It depends on if they beam you up or hypnotize you and have you march up the ladder into the Mother ship. If it is the latter then they would have your tracks and a crop circle to go by! The Truth is out there.
-Mulder

Sorry to be a party-pooper, but those don't look like rabbit tracks (the back feet normally stay together). There'd be a lot bigger scuffle in the snow if an owl came down for one, too.
I'm guessing it's a big bird (possibly owl) coming in for a landing, then hopping off to the left.

Hey guys, remember this is Alaska. Everything is bigger there. LOL. I doubt if the owl hopped to the left. I think owls spend very little time on the ground. If the victim was walking on two feet, maybe they should check for missing children! Perhaps coincidentally a vole was at the end of the track when it is was scooped up. Your analysis is interesting. Again, this is a photo taken by a friend of a friend in Bethel, Alaska.

Here is an excerpt from her email:
"Snowshoeing is a popular sport here. I can literally walk out my back door and within minutes be amongst a whole grove of tiny black spruce trees that grow along the slough. Heading the other direction, I can be out on flat tundra in 10 minutes or so. Picture a bunch of Charlie Brown trees and you’ll get the idea of what the black spruce look like. Although snarly looking and rather short, these trees are ancient. Many are 150-200 years old. It takes them FOREVER to grow on the harsh tundra. Sadly many folks go out and chop them down for xmas trees. There is a ton of wildlife that lives amongst these trees. We saw lots of rabbit tracks, imprints of feathers, vole tracks, fox, etc…I attached a photo that my friend Susan took on one of our treks. She thinks it’s the print of an owl swooping down to snatch up a rabbit. Who knows for sure, but it think its an awesome photo!"

I agree with my friend. It is an awesome photo and I thought SP people would enjoy it. Thanks to everybody for voting. Holsti97

FWIW, it looks like the small rodent tracks on the right come to a sudden end very near the wingprints. I think a bird swooped down, grabbed the rodent, then landed and walked off to the left. The weakness of this theory is that the direction of travel indicated by the wing prints would not bring the bird across the exact end of the tracks on the right - the bird would have to have made a turn as it was landing (possible if the bird had to turn into the wind to land).

Actually, I would agree with you. I was wondering where the imprint of at least the Rabbit getting grabbed was, as there would be one; it wouldn't just stand up on it's feet untill the owl felt like taking off with it. And the rabbit tracks would be a little less clear with the fore and hind prints overlapping eachother a little. It looks like an owl landing, hopping a few stepps, and then walking off, which they do.
It is, however, by far still an awesome picture.

I believe the theory that this was a rabbit getting grabbed. The back feet don't always stay together, especially if the rabbit is moving slowly (walking cautiously rather than hopping, which they sometimes do... I saw a snowshoe hare doing that a week ago, in person). And there would not have to be an "impact" mark in the snow, if the owl plucked the rabbit off the ground without fully landing. The wingprints would still be explained by the hard downstroke of the wings as the bird "pulled up" at the moment it grabbed the rabbit. The owl could have used the same "touch-and-go" technique that eagles and other birds routinely use to catch fish.

The Ogre is right, At least in my non-expert opinion. The "touch and go" technique is very common in larger birds, because to stop, and create the momentum to lift themselves plus prey, would require tremedous amounts of energy. I love this pic...